Spartan Ops

SpOps Designer: "Hey, I'm gonna use this area from campaign for this mission, except you'll go through it backwards."Frankie: "Sounds good buddy, what else you got?"SpOps Designer: "Ok, I'ma take that same Spartan Ops mission from before, except you'll go through that backwards. You know, so that it's different."Frankie: "So in other words, you're just going through the level like you did in campaign?"SpOps Designer: "Exactly."

I knew we would get some levels from the campaign side (50 missions is a lot) but I was hoping for more variety other than playing through the same levels again. We'll see what happens with Episode 3 but it is disappointing so far.

Every Spartan Ops mission:
Objective One: Clear this place out, and or, push two buttons.
Objective Two: Uh oh! Enemies spawned. Kill them all now please. (Most of the time this is 25 elites, some of which are invisible and for the first in a Halo game, HAVE INVISIBLE SWORDS SO YOU CAN'T TELL WHY YOU'RE GETTING DEAD.)
Objective Three: Sarah Palmer will say something stupid, you'll get in the pelican, and you're off to the next level you've already played before.
Emergent gameplay.

I've only played through the first episode, and I like where this seems to be going. To me, the game play is just what I have to do in order to see the awesome cutscenes.
I like how this takes place 6 months after the events of the main game. I'm hoping we'll find leftover crazy Cortana running Promethean shit by the end of the story arc, leading into Halo 5.

SPOPs is too ambitious, I think. Maybe for Halo 5 they can use some kind of procedural generation instead of just ripping stuff straight from campaign and then rehashing it for the following episode. Even shitty procedural generation would provide more variety than what we have.

I was never the biggest fan of Firefight, but that mode is definitely better executed in every way. The concept behind Spartan Ops is great: co-operative side missions that come out every week for free is a solid idea. What you actually do in Spartan Ops, though, is not fun or interesting or exciting in the slightest. It just comes across as a poor effort, and I'm sure spreading the whole thing across 50 missions didn't help either.
Pro Tip from Me to You?: if you're gonna reuse environments and assets, try changing the time of day or the weather so that it at least looks a little different. Surely changing the initial starting point or dumping a dozen extra crates into the environment is not the best you can do.

Even though they are the same environments you play them a different way so I really don't mind that it's the same place. There are new locales as well too which is nice, Chapter 1 of Episode 2 comes to mind as one that I really liked. There definitely are less new than what is reused though.

Hey, I get extra game with my game without having to pay for it, but I think my first inclination will be to bitch about it...

I made two responses for you -- you can pick whichever one you want:

A.) My mistake. Halo 4 is perfect. In fact, anything and everything that ever was, is, or will be is perfect and should never be criticized under any circumstances...
B.) They could have used those Spartan Ops resources to improve the game in other, more important areas, rather than wasting them on a poorly executed firefight mode. Or they could have dedicated more resources to Spartan Ops so it doesn't solely seem like businessman shenanigans to persuade people to hold onto their copies of Halo 4. I'm sorry if I expect more from such a large team of talented people. Maybe Spartan Ops will get better, and believe me, I will be the first one to point that out, but so far, not so good.

That's the thing Blaze, anything could be better and resources can always be used for something cooler. That doesn't take away from the fact that it's still something new which has never been tried before and does succeed at times. The point you and Nightshade made the other night that they over-promised is right though.

The story and the sexy CGI cutscenes have very little to do with one another.
The dialogue would be too cheesy for children's comics.
Why does almost every mission involve killing a bunch of dudes, pressing a button, then looping that on repeat four or five times?
The reuse of campaign locations is beyond tiresome already with week two.

A.) My mistake. Halo 4 is perfect. In fact, anything and everything that ever was, is, or will be is perfect and should never be criticized under any circumstances...
B.) They could have used those Spartan Ops resources to improve the game in other, more important areas, rather than wasting them on a poorly executed firefight mode. Or they could have dedicated more resources to Spartan Ops so it doesn't solely seem like businessman shenanigans to persuade people to hold onto their copies of Halo 4. I'm sorry if I expect more from such a large team of talented people. Maybe Spartan Ops will get better, and believe me, I will be the first one to point that out, but so far, not so good.

Um...I think the correct answer is A.

But seriously, there's always room for criticism, but without context and balance it just sounds like entitlement.